President Muhammadu Buhari has released the sum of N54 billion to settle the backlog of money owed to pensioners from 2014 to 2016.

President Muhammadu Buhari has released the sum of N54 billion to settle the backlog of money owed to pensioners from 2014 to 2016.

The Ministry of Finance's Director of Information, Mr. Salisu Danbatta revealed yesterday that N41.5 billion has already been released to the National Pension Commission (PENCOM).

Danbatta quoted the Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun saying that N12.5 billion, being outstanding for January, February and March 2017, was also released, bringing the total to about N54 billion.

Kemi equally added that the amount paid also included arrears of those who retired as far back as 2013 and had been unable to access their pension under the contributory scheme due to non-payment.

Recall that the federal public servants who retired since January 2016, had staged a protest at the Federal Ministry of Finance headquarters in Abuja over non- payment of their pension totalling to the sum of N200 billion.

In reaction to this recent release, the co-ordinator of the League of Federal Service Contributory Pension Retirees, Mr Chike Ogbechie stated that the released sum would clear much of the backlog, but definitely not all.